“Not at all,” and Bumble pulled the knot tighter. It did not hurt the prisoner, but it made it impossible for her to rise from the heavy, high-backed chair.
Helen quickly tied two or three more strong knots in the long ends, and the firm silk fabric was as secure as a hempen rope would have been.
“Now, I guess that’ll hold you!” she said, nodding approval at her work. Then, oblivious to the venomous looks of the captive lady, she took up the telephone and called Patty.
“If you’re innocent of any wrong,” she said to Mrs. Lummis, as she waited for her response, “you can have no objection to my speaking to my friends. Hello, that you?”
She mentioned no name but recognised Patty’s voice.
“You know that little matter you put in the Winthrop?”
“Yes,” said Patty, knowing at once Bumble meant the old Governor Winthrop desk.
“Take it out at once,—now,—and put it somewhere else. See?”
“No, I don’t see——”
“Well, you don’t have to,” Bumble was nervously impatient, but kept her voice calm, “only in the name of your country, do as I say!”